During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT before class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson?
Observation:
Today during class my CT started the class period halfway in the door and halfway out the door. As my CT was standing in the doorway she made it clear to say hello to every single student that walked in individually. She also kept an eye on the students in the hallway, scolding a student for running and bumping into multiple students. Class starts exactly at 7:25 and I would say my CT gave her students a minute or two to get out their notebooks and homework before she said hello to the class and started the lesson. She began the lesson by saying, "Goodmorning everybody! I hope you all got a good nights rest because today we are going to be doing some lab work!" A bunch of students sighed and she laughed and said, "I guess you guys didn't get enough sleep last night" (she opened the lesson with a joke which got students laughing and paying attention). The lesson began when she started to assess their previous knowledge from their last lesson on ecosystems and relationships between them. She asked intriguing questions like, "Can anyone tell me what the main parts of an ecosystem are? How are animal populations kept in check by one another? What are the trophic levels and what does each one represent?" After the lesson got started I helped students working on the computers on a "Virtual Lab" (my CT says virtual labs are easier then regular labs because there is no clean up and students enjoy working on the computers). After the lab was over my CT asked all the students to take out their HW because it was going to be collected during their short quiz at the end of the period. Those students who did the HW were given credit in the grade book, those that didn't do the HW were given 0's.
Reflection:
During the time in between periods, my CT stood in the doorway of her classroom. I believe she did this not only to be able to greet all her students as they came into the class, but also to keep an eye on the hallway and make sure there were no "problems" happening during the very hectic transition between classes. Giving the students a minute or two to get settled in their seats before starting class doesn't rush students, but it also doesn't give them enough time to get to distracted from the tasks they are about to do (I believe this is a good balance). I also enjoyed how she had a witty comment that got the students to laugh and got them to stop talking to each other, and focus on her (I'm not surprised that she had a witty comment to begin the class, she is a very fun-loving and interesting teacher). However, right after her witty comment, when she had her students eyes and ears on her, she immediately started the lesson by asking her class questions which activated their prior knowledge and got them ready to do their labs. At the end of the class she asked her students to take out their HW to be collected while they did their short "UST quiz" I thought that this had positives and negatives to it, the positives are that it is "killing two birds with one stone," you get the HW collected at the same time as the students are taking a quiz which definitely saves time during class, the negatives are that students can get distracted from their quiz by taking out their HW.
Observation:
Today during class my CT started the class period halfway in the door and halfway out the door. As my CT was standing in the doorway she made it clear to say hello to every single student that walked in individually. She also kept an eye on the students in the hallway, scolding a student for running and bumping into multiple students. Class starts exactly at 7:25 and I would say my CT gave her students a minute or two to get out their notebooks and homework before she said hello to the class and started the lesson. She began the lesson by saying, "Goodmorning everybody! I hope you all got a good nights rest because today we are going to be doing some lab work!" A bunch of students sighed and she laughed and said, "I guess you guys didn't get enough sleep last night" (she opened the lesson with a joke which got students laughing and paying attention). The lesson began when she started to assess their previous knowledge from their last lesson on ecosystems and relationships between them. She asked intriguing questions like, "Can anyone tell me what the main parts of an ecosystem are? How are animal populations kept in check by one another? What are the trophic levels and what does each one represent?" After the lesson got started I helped students working on the computers on a "Virtual Lab" (my CT says virtual labs are easier then regular labs because there is no clean up and students enjoy working on the computers). After the lab was over my CT asked all the students to take out their HW because it was going to be collected during their short quiz at the end of the period. Those students who did the HW were given credit in the grade book, those that didn't do the HW were given 0's.
Reflection:
During the time in between periods, my CT stood in the doorway of her classroom. I believe she did this not only to be able to greet all her students as they came into the class, but also to keep an eye on the hallway and make sure there were no "problems" happening during the very hectic transition between classes. Giving the students a minute or two to get settled in their seats before starting class doesn't rush students, but it also doesn't give them enough time to get to distracted from the tasks they are about to do (I believe this is a good balance). I also enjoyed how she had a witty comment that got the students to laugh and got them to stop talking to each other, and focus on her (I'm not surprised that she had a witty comment to begin the class, she is a very fun-loving and interesting teacher). However, right after her witty comment, when she had her students eyes and ears on her, she immediately started the lesson by asking her class questions which activated their prior knowledge and got them ready to do their labs. At the end of the class she asked her students to take out their HW to be collected while they did their short "UST quiz" I thought that this had positives and negatives to it, the positives are that it is "killing two birds with one stone," you get the HW collected at the same time as the students are taking a quiz which definitely saves time during class, the negatives are that students can get distracted from their quiz by taking out their HW.